The Effect of an Entrepreneurship Program on GPA and Retention*

There is a small but growing body of evidence that entrepreneurship programs add value to students, the degree programs in which they are housed, and the institutions that host them. The Engineering Entrepreneurs Program at North Carolina State University, a program in which undergraduate students participate in design teams formed around technology start‐up company themes, was started with funding from the NSF‐sponsored SUCCEED (Southeastern Universities and Colleges Coalition for Engineering Education) Coalition primarily to improve the confidence and retention of engineering students. Multiple assessment approaches including surveys, focus groups, interviews, longitudinal assessment of retention and academic performance, and anecdotal evidence triangulate on the success of this program at meeting its primary objectives and others. Particularly, the longitudinal study revealed that program participants had higher engineering retention rates (70 percent vs. 51 percent) and GPAs (3.08 vs. 2.83) than a matched set of non‐participants. The program and its rigorous assessment serve as models for the engineering entrepreneurship community.     

Measuring Engineering Design Self‐Efficacy

Background Self‐concept can influence how an individual learns, but is often overlooked when assessing student learning in engineering. Purpose (Hypothesis ) To validate an instrument designed to measure individuals' self‐concepts toward engineering design tasks, three research questions were investigated: (a) how well the items in the instrument represent the engineering design process in eliciting the task‐specific self‐concepts of self‐efficacy, motivation, outcome expectancy, and anxiety, (b) how well the instrument predicts differences in the self‐efficacy held by individuals with a range of engineering experiences, and (c) how well the responses to the instrument align with the relationships conceptualized in self‐efficacy theory. Design /Method A 36‐item online instrument was developed and administered to 202 respondents. Three types of validity evidence were obtained for (a) representativeness of multi‐step engineering design processes in eliciting self‐efficacy, (b) the instrument's ability to differentiate groups of individuals with different levels of engineering experience, and (c) relationships between self‐efficacy, motivation, outcome expectancy, and anxiety as predicted by self‐efficacy theory. Results Results indicate that the instrument can reliably identify individuals' engineering design self‐efficacy (α = 0.967), motivation (α = 0.955), outcome expectancy (α = 0.967), and anxiety (α = 0.940). One‐way ANOVA identified statistical differences in self‐efficacy between high, intermediate, and low experience groups at the ρ < 0.05 level. Self‐efficacy was also shown to be correlated to motivation (0.779), outcome expectancy (0.919), and anxiety (—0.593) at the ρ < 0.01 level. Conclusions The study showed that the instrument was capable of identifying individuals' self‐concepts specific to the engineering design tasks.     

Using Writing Assignments to Improve Self‐Assessment and Communication Skills in an Engineering Statics Course

This study explores the use of writing as a tool for metacognition in the engineering classroom. We used the “explain‐a‐problem” type of assignment in the Engineering Statics course for four terms. The objectives associated with the assignments were grouped under student self‐assessment, student communication, and administration. Performance on each of four grading criteria for each assignment was tracked throughout the terms. The data indicate that explain‐a‐problem does help students achieve the self‐assessment and communication objectives, although the impact on overall course performance was not as significant as hoped. The assignment evolved to the point that the administrative objectives were also met.     

Assessing Pedagogy in Bioengineering Classrooms: Quantifying Elements of the “How People Learn” Model Using the VaNTH Observation System (VOS)

One goal of the VaNTH Engineering Research Center is to estimate the effects of the “value added” to bioengineering student learning as a result of “How People Learn” (HPL) framework interventions. A necessary step in that process is to assess pedagogical differences in both lecture‐based and HPL‐oriented courses. Data from 28 bioengineering courses, over five semesters, were analyzed using a newly developed HPL Index. This index, developed from the Classroom Interaction Observation portion of the VaNTH Observation System, reports levels of HPL‐inspired pedagogy, traditional pedagogy, and classroom organization within a class using codes for different types of faculty and student interactions assigned by an observer in real time. Results confirm the HPL Index's ability to distinguish pedagogical practices based on HPL principles and pedagogical practices based on traditional, non‐HPL pedagogy.     

An Investigation of Students' Conceptual Understanding in Related Sophomore to Graduate‐Level Engineering and Mechanics Courses

Interviews were conducted with students from a sophomore‐level mechanics of materials class, a sophomore/junior‐level structures class, a senior‐level steel design class and a graduate‐level advanced steel design class to investigate students' conceptual understanding of bending and normal stress. The graduate students generally demonstrated higher computational skill and confidence but they were not significantly different from the sophomores in terms of conceptual understanding. Interestingly, the seniors showed markedly lower confidence in their ability to solve the problems posed in the interviews. Common difficulties include a conceptual definition of stress and reasoning involving the normal stresses developed under bending.     

Pattern‐based prognostic methodology for condition‐based maintenance using selected and weighted survival curves

This paper proposes a pattern‐based prognostic methodology that combines logical analysis of data (LAD) as an event‐driven diagnostic technique, and Kaplan–Meier (KM) estimator as a time‐driven technique. LAD captures the effect of the instantaneous conditions on the health state of a monitored system, while KM estimates the baseline reliability curve that reflects the effect of aging, based on the observed historical failure times. LAD is used to generate a set of patterns from the observed values of covariates that represent the operating conditions and condition indicators. A pattern selection procedure is carried out to select the set of significant patterns from all the generated patterns. A survival curve is estimated, for each subset of observations covered by each selected pattern. A weight that reflects the coverage of each pattern is assigned to its survival curve. Given a recently collected observation, the survival curve of a monitored system is updated on the basis of the patterns covering that observation. The updated curve is then used to predict the remaining useful life of the monitored system. The proposed methodology is validated using a common dataset in prognostics: the turbofan degradation dataset that is available at NASA prognostic repository. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing Performance Risk for Complex Product Development: A Simulation‐Based Model

Assessing and managing performance risk is important for complex product development projects. The performance risk of complex product development can be defined as the probability failing to achieve desired performance level subject to cost and time constraints. This article presents a simulation model based on the graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT) and analyzes the complex product development project using simulation data. The model computes the probability distribution of project duration and cost in a GERT network with multifeedback branches considering activities rework that is caused by probabilistic failure to meet the planned design objective. A simulation strategy is designed to assess the performance risk in both subsystems and system development. With the performance risk assessment methodology, project managers can make a better decision and then minimize the performance risk of product development project. Finally, an obstacle clearance armored vehicle development project is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Styles of Science and Engineering: The Case of Early Long‐Distance Telephony*

Abstract In the historiography of the relationship between technology and theoretical science, electrical communication plays an important role. It was by means of mathematical reasoning based on the new theory of electromagnetism that it was first understood how to extend the range of telephony by inserting self‐inductance in the line. This paper surveys developments from around 1880 to 1910, at a time when ‘pupinization’ had become a reality and mathematical physics an accepted part of the research strategy of a few advanced companies in the electrical industry. It presents the confrontation of two different styles of engineering science, on the one hand there was the empirical approach and on the other an approach more mathematical in nature. This paper offers some reflections on the nature of ‘counterintuitive technologies’ and the general relationship between science, engineering and technology.     

Developing Criteria for an On‐Line Learning Environment: From the Student and Faculty Perspectives*

The research literature abounds with articles about distance learning from the perspectives of students, faculty, and administrators. Most of these articles discuss the details of transitioning to on‐line learning environments. Research is beginning to pay attention to quality issues in distance learning. This article discusses a three‐phase developmental study conducted in a graduate school. Students were asked to brainstorm and develop a set of quality indicators. These indicators were ranked by a second group of students. Then the indicators were given to a group of faculty for another ranking. In this study it was shown that there was a very great agreement on the relative importance of the various potential indicators of quality in courses delivered via an on‐line medium.     

Controlled Growth of High‐Quality ZnO‐Based Films and Fabrication of Visible‐Blind and Solar‐Blind Ultra‐Violet Detectors

ZnO is a wide‐bandgap (3.37 eV at room temperature) oxide semiconductor that is attractive for its great potential in short‐wavelength optoelectronic devices, in which high quality films and heterostructures are essential for high performance. In this study, controlled growth of ZnO‐based thin films and heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is demonstrated on different substrates with emphasis on interface engineering. It is revealed that ultrathin AlN or MgO interfacial layers play a key role in establishing structural and chemical compatibility between ZnO and substrates. Furthermore, a quasi‐homo buffer is introduced prior to growth of a wurtzite MgZnO epilayer to suppress the phase segregation of rock‐salt MgO, achieving wide‐range bandgap tuning from 3.3 to 4.55 eV. Finally, a visible‐blind UV detector exploiting a double heterojunction of n‐ZnO/insulator‐MgO/p‐Si and a solar‐blind UV detector using MgZnO as an active layer are fabricated by using the growth techniques discussed here.